Patrol

Video: 2 Officers Shot in Ferguson During Protest

Two police officers were shot just after midnight Thursday outside the Ferguson police department. One officer was hit in the face, the other in the shoulder. The wounds have been described as "very serious" but not "life-threatening."

At least three shots were fired at the officers as police were confronting protesters who had gathered outside the police station in response to the resignation of Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson. The officers who were shot were not part of the direct crowd control response.

St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said one officer was with his department and the other was with the Webster Groves, Mo., department. Both are being treated at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The Webster Groves officer was shot in the face. He is 32 and has been on the force seven years.

The county officer was hit in the shoulder. That officer is 41 and has been on the force for 14 years.

No suspects have been identified in the shootings.

After the shots were fired, the scene turned chaotic. Some protesters dropped to the ground. Others fled the scene.

Bradley Rayford, a freelance journalist who has been reporting from Ferguson since the unrest began there last summer, said he saw three or four muzzle flashes from the crest of Tiffin Hill, a residential neighborhood with large century-old homes.

A former police officer—now an elected official with the Missouri House of Representatives—wants to force any city with a population of 5,000 or fewer inhabitants, with an area of less than two square miles, to disband its police department and contract for law enforcement services with either the county police department or a larger neighboring city.